[Len Gribble]

Hi DP

I know this is not Chewing Gum Issue but it’s related.

What ever happened to keep Briton tidy campaign!  Local authorities will never run it as a business it’s a charity for those who run it, in some London boroughs councillors get from £35 to £50k a year, (for that I will promise you the world but I’m not a eloquent as them) it’s the dinks like us elect them, once in no accountability till next election, then you get promises, the list is endless. The state of our streets has been on BBC radio London this week and on news tonight about the state of London streets.

I was on secondment to Singapore by my former employer Chewing Gum is banded there! And the streets are clean.

How many of you see litterbins in your high street/shop parade? You see them in shopping centres then they have cleaner’s full time going round all the time.

Sorry Ian you being a Councillor and all, if this offends but most local authorities are looking for the quick buck parking fines only and not how clean are our streets!

Len

[DP]

I have extremely mixed feelings about council's in general as I guess many do. The problem is that we have to vote one of them in and they will always fail us in one way or another. However in future I will base my vote on what they will do about our streets as I am fed up living in a pigsty

I also have a hang up about where this works goes as I believe that the work should go out to contract by way of supporting the community and not constantly grabbed by the council.

I also resent intensely how council’s manipulate the free work in the public sector by keeping it rather then passing it out and again using any source of subsidisation to ensure lower prices thereby bringing about economic but artificial justification of their own services above any other.

Call it what you will its bull

However on the other side of the coin, if my council tax were to double, because the council used only contractors, I wouldn’t be huge about that either.

oopps have we slipped off topic here?

[britboy]

it seems i have started quite an issue here  
but still no idea as to the pricing of this job  
lol
ahh well i will play it by ear and see what i can get away with.
i'll keep you in touch and let others know what my results are
brit

[Ian Gourlay]

Yes I agree it would be useful if we could have some ideas on pricing.

On the subject of how much Councillors get paid.

£2500 a year after tax £30 a week aprox so not in it for money.

We have been running a Cleanup Campain for about 3 years and is considered sucessful by the local poulation.

We have one of the highest recycling rates in the country.

And were told we were a very good council providing value for money services by the local authority auditors.
Raised Council Tax by 2%
We still got voted out in May elections.

[Len Gribble]

Hi

Back to cost of removing chewing gum I quoted a theme pub (I seem to a lot of these) two weeks ago to clean their carpets the price was £750 to remove gum and £650 to clean carpets manager said no way I’ll get a replacement ok Len walk away (I knew how much it would cost to replace) I got a call today 7th from the area manager can you come a clean the carpet also can you quote for the wood floor! Answer yes but it’s will cost and you think our streets are dirty! The moral every customer thinks cleaning is cheap Ok here’s a scraper show me!

Sorry Ian back to the politics

I can only talk about my local authority I believe all is sub out to contactors some say bad some say good.  The problem the way I see it’s not the sub’s it is the local authority staff are totally complacent in allocation; it took 18 month for them to log a problem, which I reported under HSE, even the local authorities ignore the HSE directives until pushed.

Sorry you must be taking the Mick 2% even in you part of the world! Value for money you buy cheap you get cheap, buyer beware!!

A quotation I like.  If you deal with the lowest bidder, it as well to add something for the risk and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.
John Ruskin 19th century writer. Thanks Woodman have you got any more like this very useful.


Len